90min

MLS Week 29 best players - ranked

By Chris Smith

There's no stopping Mukhtar right now.
There's no stopping Mukhtar right now. / Casey Gower-USA TODAY Sports
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Week 29 of the 2022 MLS season is done and we have just over a month to go until the Playoffs begin.

Teams are still battling hard to make the post-season and, now more than ever, are relying on their star players to get the job done under immense pressure.

Who did it best this week? Let's rank the top five:

5. Sebastian Lletget (FC Dallas)

After a tense first half, FC Dallas buried Minnesota United with three goals in the space of four second-half minutes on Saturday.

The likes of Alan Velasco and Jesus Ferreira will get the headlines for the goals, but Sebastian Lletget deserves a ton of credit for his part in the win.

The USMNT midfielder put in a supreme performance for Dallas, providing two assists from three chances created and completing all 33 of his attempted passes. More than that, Lletget put in a big defensive effort and had seemingly endless reserves of energy to call upon.

4. Gabriel Slonina (Chicago Fire)

Another week, another clean sheet for Gabriel Slonina.

The future Chelsea star now has 12 shutouts on the season - a record bettered only by Andre Blake and Sean Johnson with 13 each.

This time, Slonina was required to make nine saves to keep the Columbus Crew at bay, with a diving stop to deny Lucas Zelarayan the pick of the bunch.

Slonina faced 1.78 xGOT but was equal to everything Columbus threw at him in a performance that only provides further evidence that he's the best teenage goalkeeper on the planet.

3. Kei Kamara (CF Montreal)

Age just doesn't seem to affect Kei Kamara, even at 38 years old.

The veteran striker had the telling say in CF Montreal's 4-3 comeback win over arch-rivals Toronto FC. First, Kamara made a fool of TFC center-back Chris Mavinga before finishing through Alex Bono's legs to make it 3-2 to Montreal, before heading the ball across to Alistair Johnstone to make it four shortly after half-time.

With his goal, Kamara has now moved into third place on the list of all-time regular-season goalscorers. Next in his sights is one Landon Donovan, who is only 10 goals ahead.

2. Nouhou Tolo (Seattle Sounders)

Nouhou Tolo has scored an MLS goal! Yes, you read that correctly, Nouhou Tolo has scored an MLS goal!

That in itself is probably enough to give him an inclusion on this list, but add the fact he provided the assist for Fredy Montero's winner in a 2-1 against the Houston Dynamo? And his two tackles, nine recoveries, one clearance, and one aerial duel won?

It'd take a pretty good performance to top Nouhou this week...

1. Hany Mukhtar (Nashville SC)

That's exactly what Hany Mukhtar provided... again.

The former Germany youth international was at it again, bagging another two goals in the final 10 minutes to seal his side's 3-0 win over Austin FC.

More than that, Mukhtar created a whopping seven chances on the night and perhaps should have been rewarded with an assist or two.

Most impressive about Mukhtar's showing on Saturday is that he was so good up against his main MVP rival, Sebastian Driussi - the man he also happened to surpass in the Golden Boot race with this brace.

Honorable mentions: Ryan Hollingshead, Alan Velasco, Lorenzo Insigne, Djordje Petrovic, Walker Zimmerman, Luciano Acosta, Jack Elliott, Daniel Lovitz, Santiago Moreno.

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